


Will Stronghold Unlearns Genetic Predetermination (Heartwarming)

by criesinauthor (wrotemyowndeliverance)



Category: Sky High (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, Multi, high school romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:34:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24106024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrotemyowndeliverance/pseuds/criesinauthor
Summary: This is a completely self serving AU fic where Will doesn't just get his powers when it's convenient for the plot and maybe gets a boyfriend along the way. Warren is my character now and I will give him the backstory he deserves once he develops the ability to uhh idk open up to people.
Relationships: Warren Peace & Will Stronghold, Warren Peace/Will Stronghold
Comments: 25
Kudos: 139





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Will is kind of an idiot but he's also our narrator's bias for this. Just know I love all of Sky High's characters despite Will being a dumbass. Also, I did make Warren skip a grade so he'd be the same age as Will because I am SICK of seeing people fetishize a one year age difference between two teenage boys. This is not for you if you do that shit.

It was almost October and Will Stronghold was  _ still _ on the sidekick track. It wasn't bad enough Principle Powers had to bail him out of a fight with Warren Peace almost every month since the beginning of the year, he could see the disappointment in his parent’s eyes every time they caught him hanging out with his  _ hero support  _ friends. It was becoming more and more apparent that nothing in this world could make him super. Not even to his own parents. 

Despite all of this, Will believed in his heart that he'd one day achieve the powers he wanted so badly—despite being a "late bloomer," a phrase Layla was all to eagar to use around him. As much as he loved his best friend, he couldn't help but resent her a bit for being so powerful and refusing to use them just because of some bogus morals. He knew she was right to be so strong in her convictions, that’s why he believed she deserved to be a hero after all. Not stuck in the sidekick track with him. 

It only got worse for Will when Mister Boy handed out their first hero collaboration project. 

Mister Boy flipped up from under his desk as he usually did. Behind him on the board was the prompt of the next week. "Hello class, today we're going to start our first project on applying support theory. Who can tell me what that means?"

Ethan's hand shot up so fast he thought it'd splash off his body. Luckily, he was the only person doing that and was called on immediately. "Applying support theory means we'll be taking it out of the hypothetical and developing the best methods to support real life heroes."

"Very good, Ethan." Mister Boy, said. "If you look behind me, you're to be answering this prompt 'how do I best support my hero.' But, you might be asking yourself, "Mister Boy, I don't have a hero yet?" Well that's exactly why Mister Boomer graciously allowed his Applying Heroism II class to do a mock hero support selection. Your assignments are as follows..."

For the next ten minutes Will and his friends chatted quietly amongst themselves, waiting for their assignments to be called. Layla got Penny, Zach got Lash, Ethan got Tony, Magenta got Speed. Will couldn't believe his ears when his own name was finally called. 

"Will Stronghold, Warren Peace"

A hush fell over the room, everyone except Mister Boy seemed to pick up on the intense irony of that pairing. 

For the rest of the day, Will floated aimlessly, caught up in the anxiety of interviewing his worst enemy, until it was lunch and he had to begin the most dangerous assignment a sidekick could ever get. He spotted Warren immediately when he took an apple from the lunch line without paying then walked over to his trademarked brooding table. This alone told Will everything he needed to be in store for and he sped over to the sulking boy's table and sat down across from him. 

"Why the heck did you pick  _ me?" _ Will said after unceremoniously dumping his backpack on the table in front of him. 

" _ Gee _ , hello to you, too." He said sarcastically. There was an incredibly awkward pause as Will stared confusedly at Warren. "Didn't mean to. You were the last one picked and I was the last one in class."

"Great. Absolutely freaking great—wait. I was picked last? Like even Ethan was picked before me last?"

"Yes. Do you have any idea how it would feel to have the Commander and Jetstream's kid as your stupid hero support? You're a pariah, Stronghold." He punctuated his sentence with a bite of his apple. 

"Yeah, I'm the pariah, yet you're a whole year older than me and you still sit alone and steal apples from a school! I don't think it gets more pathetic than that. So." 

"I'm not older."

"What?"

"Homeschooled since I got my powers for early admission. You should probably write it down for your dumb report."

Will began scrambling for his Hero Support I notebook. "You got your powers before you were 13?"

"Yeah?"

"Okay hold on. Got powers before thirteen." He said as he wrote. "Got it. Go on." 

“I took a placement test and got a full ride and free lunch. The rest is history." He punctuated it with another bite of his apple that Will almost thought sounded like 'f-you.' 

"Oh." He laughed awkwardly. "Sorry about that then."

Warren discreetly flamed up his hand. "You better be." 

After his initial flinch, Will started reaching for his hand after realizing he wasn't being attacked in the middle of the lunch room for once. "So does that hurt you?"

He extinguished himself and grabbed Will by his wrist. "Are you a fucking idiot?"

"I wasn't going to touch the actual freakin' fire." He shook himself from Warren's grasp. "I wanted a closer look. It's not often you aren't trying to burn me alive for no reason. You should know better than anybody the only thing I'm capable of is stopping, dropping, and rolling."

A beat passed between them as Warren let go of his wrist and let his scowl fade a little bit.

"It only hurts if I burn for more than three hours straight."

"What happens then?" Will began scribbling again.

"It gets too hot, dumbass."

"Can you cool it with the swearing? Please?"

"Why, Stronghold? Can't sit at the big kid table without your delicate, all American sensibilities being offended?" 

"Fine. Don't stop. You're just making yourself sound unintelligent anyways."

"Pǔtōnghuà yǒu wǔ wàn gè zìfú, wǒ néng dú suǒyǒu de. Dàn qǐng jìxù chēng wǒ wèi yúchǔn de bái miànbāo."

Will stared in confusion. "What?"

"Mandarin has fifty thousand characters and I can read all of them. But, sure, keep calling me stupid, white bread."

"See! That's what I mean. Fifty-thousand characters and you still need to call me a swear word to be hurtful."

More silence passed between them before Warren spoke again. "What else do you need to know?"

"Mister Boy is supposed to give us new questions everyday until we have enough for a report and a presentation."

"So you're going to do this to me every single day for the whole week?" Warren raised his voice enough that the tables closest to them stopped talking. 

"Yep. Possibly longer. Definitely into the weekend. Wow would you look at the time. I'm gonna go." Be spoke as he put away his school books just as quickly as he'd taken them out. "See you around, Warren."

"Count on it, Stronghold." He shouted after him.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning on his walk to the bus stop, the first thing Layla wanted to know was how his lunch with the enemy went. 

They'd been walking silently for about a minute until she asked. 

"Was he as difficult as he seems?"

"Yes, he's rude. And he curses like a sailor on shore leave. It's so stupid that I even have to do this."

Layla laughed. "I know that's not really your style, but it is a free country, Will."

"So? You should still be nice!" 

"Mean people still have rights. And deserve a chance."

Will refused to acknowledge her point and decided to change the subject. "How was Penny? And Penny and Penny and Penny and Penny and Penny?"

"And Penny?"

Will smiled for the first time since broaching the topic of their classwork. "Yeah, her too."

"They're all lovely. Kind of rude, too. Probably even more than, Warren."

"That is literally impossible. He's the worst."

"He isn't! Trust me. I can see it in his eyes, he's just like a sleeping bear cub everyone keeps poking and poking until he lashes out. Penny's a swarm of hornets attacking anyone in their wake. I can tell she likes talking about herself though."

Will rolled his eyes. "Every murderous, blood thirsty bear was a cub once, Lays." 

"That is a false equivalency. I hope by the end of this you guys are best friends and understand each other and you have sleepovers all the time and paint your nails and do boy talk."

"That's the worst thing you could have wished for me!" 

"It's too late! I'm manifesting it! It's in the universe now, and she will decide what to do with it!"

"Everyone thinks Warren's the only villain in this school, but after that I'm beginning to think you're trying to give him a run for his money"

Layla laughed at his comment. "You're such a dramatic!"

They finally reached the stop where Zach and Ethan were already chatting about Battle Star Trek Wars or something else Will barely understood, but luckily Layla didn't even bring up school or even open her mouth for them to switch the focus back to Warren. 

"Hey Will, I'm really impressed by your ability to ask a pyrokinetic intense personal questions and escape unscorched." Ethan said.

Zach laughed way too hard about that. "Yeah man. No cap, I was sure they were gonna be vacuuming you off of the rafters."

"Thanks, guys. Your faith in me speaks volumes."

Layla could see he was getting tense and started rubbing his shoulder comfortingly. The conversation between the four of them continued touching on other relevant subjects and the ever irrelevant, in Will’s opinion, “ _ what my hero name will be”  _ conversation. Like anyone besides Layla had the chops to be a  _ real _ hero. 

That's the part he was scared of most for graduating as a sidekick. Having somebody else pick everything about his super identity. His name. His clothes. Bossing him around his whole life until he got vaporized or fed to piranhas or was dropped like a sack of kryptonite and had to start teaching high school.

He thought back to what Warren said.  _ You're a pariah. Nobody wants the Commander and Jetstream's kid as hero support _ . Then he had the worst thought of all—Warren and him being the last two picks at graduation, too. It left a bad taste in his mouth. William Stephen Stronghold becoming a  _ villain's henchman. _ Not just any villain's henchman,  _ Barron Battle's son's henchman.  _

He'd rather be a bus driver if that was the only other option. 

From the bus ride to homeroom all the way to Hero Support class, the thought didn't leave his head. If he doesn't get the coolest powers in the world by June, he might as well kiss his future goodbye and ship it off to Warren’s  _ evil inferno _ . Once again, it was suddenly lunch, time to talk up the worst possible person he could've gotten for this assignment. 

Instead of floating in disbelief like yesterday, Will dragged his feet the whole way there. When he walked in about ten minutes late and scanned the room for Warren’s dark cloud of a back profile so he knew where  _ not _ to be. He found it, and saw that Layla and an abundance of Pennies were in the opposite direction, and decided that was the change of pace the day needed. He walked over and took a seat next to Layla as she pretended to be writing down the off topic rant Penny was on as she was as truly doodling flowers and writing their Latin names, meanings, and properties next to them in her beautiful, swooping handwriting. 

“Excuse me?” The Penny closest to him said. “Aren't you supposed to be surveying Firestarter over there?”

Will swallowed hard hoping the upperclassmen wouldn’t force him away from the table. 

“Actually, I asked him to assist me today. We can get twice the information with two reporters. Isn't that right, Will?”

“Yes! Yes that's exactly right.”

The gaggle of identical girls shrugged and each one started talking about something equally irrelevant to the questions for the project as Will and Layla feigned interest and wrote each other notes in their books. 

_ Are you and Warren not getting along anymore???  _ She further punctuated her inquiry with a little sad face. 

_ We didn't get along to begin with.  _ Will replied with huge scrawling letters that looked especially blocky next to Layla’s cursive, but it'd be a lie to say they didn't match his tone in all of this. 

_ You still need yr answers.  _ This time Layla drew out a little stack of papers with an ‘F’ on them. 

_ I'm too  _ ~~_ upset _ ~~ _ p-ssed off to be around that guy right now.  _ He pressed into the page hard to create the dark mark that blocked out his first choice of words. 

_ If you cool off later, I have his number. Txt him the questions. You’re too smart to let something petty like this earn you a bad grade, y'know?  _

The bell rang before Will could show Layla his next response and the two of them thanked the multitude of Pennies for their cooperation and set off for their last few periods of the day. Even after the probability lesson in his Heroic Risk Analysis class, he couldn't figure out why  _ Layla  _ had  _ his _ number. It just didn't add up. They never even talked to each other, as far as Will knew. It was a thought that followed him through the day and filled him with jealousy, a little confusion, but he was certain it was mainly jealousy. The questions swarmed him. Was this just Warren trying to make him feel jealous? Or get an edge on him? Was this him showing he doesn't care how close someone is to the Strongholds and he just hated Will specifically? Was he being replaced for the moment when Layla showed her real power and left him to rot in the sidekick track? 

While it was true Scorched Earth  _ would _ be an amazing name for a hero duo, this kind of thinking was eating him alive, even his parents could see it on his face that he wasn't all there. From the moment he got home and started in on his work, to the few times he ran down for water and the bathroom. It was obvious. 

“Will, sweetie, come downstairs!” His mother shouted up to his room. He rolled the idea of ignoring it around his head, but decided she hadn't done anything to make him like this, so why should he insult her over it? 

She was waiting for him at the foot of the stairs and gave him a kiss on the forehead as soon as he was close enough. “i noticed you were kind of down in the dumps, so we did a little surprise for you.”

Will perked up almost immediately. “Really? What?” 

“We ordered some takeout from that place you and Layla go to all the time!” 

The Paper Lantern wasn’t at the top of Will’s list by any means, but since Layla was a vegetarian and he was very much not one, it was the place they went out to eat most of the time. Nevertheless, they had great food, great atmosphere, and she was always happy to be there with him. Their only true flaw as a business was they didn't deliver.

  
  


“I know parking over there is going to be a nightmare this time of night, so could you take the ride with me and pick it up while I case the block?”

Any other day she'd just fly over there, but he had noticed that lately his parents were keeping the secret in their secret identities up better than usual. They drove him places, his dad started using pliers, they even shut up about they Stronghold three thing. Probably for him if he was being completely honest. He wasn't upset about it, but it wasn't them and that's what made it kind of upsetting. He wasn't going to dwell on his mother’s rusty driving skills tonight, though. It was just an extra normal Tuesday night. 

When they reached the Lantern, there was indeed a bit of a parking problem, so he got out and headed inside hearing the tired skid as his mother started driving again, thankful he wasn't there with her. He approached the pick up area and saw a guy with a man bun manning it with his back turned and his face obscured, he was taking a phone call and writing an order at the same time. Will didn't want to be rude so he took the opportunity to look around at the decor until he heard the sound of the phone hanging up. Nothing probably could've prepared him for  _ Warren Peace,  _ to be standing there with his customer service face on, which broke the minute he saw Will. 

“Welcome to the Paper Lantern—”

“We really don't have to do this right now.”

Warren was far from pleased to see him, but he didn't look very angry. “I'm not going to do anything, Stronghold. Just give me the stupid order number.”

“I think it's 426.”

Warren poked around the two orders that were filled behind him, to Will’s chagrin neither of them had been his. “It's not ready yet. They might've called the wrong number.”

“Dang it.”

“It isn't gonna be that much longer. Don't get your patriotic panties in a twist.”

The silence between them after that was less awkward than usual. Warren was still avoiding eye contact, but Will was strangely fixed on the piece of hair falling left of his face, how different the soft lighting looked. It was like there was something fundamentally different about Warren when he wasn't at Sky High. Or maybe it was just something different about how Will saw him. 

“I know you were avoiding me today or whatever.”

“I” Will was taken off guard. “I was just helping Layla, I didn't mean to bail.”

“Sure.” He was much less biting with his tone than he could've been. 

“Do you wanna just get the questions out of the way while I'm waiting?”

“Whatever.”

“Alright, uh.” It took Will a second to remember the assignment. “What types of battle situations put you at a disadvantage and why?”

“Water arena, obviously. Space, no oxygen. Burning buildings can go either way, I'm a lot better at starting fires than ending them.”

“That's interesting. I always thought you could control them. Bend them to your will. Master of the flame.”

“At risk of sounding like my mother, it's not  _ control _ its more like influence.  _ My fires _ are mine, but fire in general is just it's own person entirely and how good I am at controlling them depends mostly on my quote, unquote persuasion skills.” 

“Huh. So you're like a telepath who only talks to fire?”

“I guess so, but that's honestly the worst way you can put it” 

“It is not! That's exactly what you just told me.” Will said.

“It isn’t and I will never agree with you that it is. What's the next question?”

“How could I best support you in that situation?” Will practically spat the words out. “I don't have a problem with being hero support, but _gosh_ this place does not make it easy.”

“Stopping, dropping, and rolling. Obviously.” The sides of his mouth turned up slightly into a smile because of his own joke. 

“Typical hero. Do they even tell you guys about our  _ nifty _ little tool belts?”

“Nope. That's your job. What've you got to save me from the vacuum of space?”

“Nothing, we’d both die. Burning building however? High pressure miniature extinguisher.”

“What about the water arena?”

“The oil slick function is intended for land only, but you're gonna be like a villain or an antihero or something anyways, right? What's a little oil spill for the greater good? Or bad? Or chaotic neutral? You send incredibly mixed signals.”

“I'm not sending any signals. Really, look who's talking. You blow off your assignment to talk to little miss green peace and now you're willing to cause an oil spill? For shame, Stronghold, for shame.” 

“Hey, I'm only supposed to be as good as the hero I'm supporting.” Will put his finger to his own chest for emphasis. 

“Fair enough” Behind him, someone dropped off another order from the kitchen. As soon as the person cleared the space to go back, Warren turned and picked up the food, Will's food. “But I wouldn't ask you to cause an oil spill either.” 

“Thanks. See you around I guess.” Will said and gave him a sheepish wave goodbye. 

“See ya.” Warren called after him. 

Dinner that night was just dinner and the day weighed on him a little less than it did before. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for all this support! This only took this long bc i forgot I got writers block on how to finish it so thats why it ends Like That but now that it's out of the way and published, it should grease the works. 
> 
> also yes i have seen the sky high eugenics video by jack sant...

The next day on the bus, Layla was, in Will’s opinion, a little too happy to hear about that chance encounter. It wasn't like they were best friends or anything now, they just got away from the high stakes environment of Sky High, and by high stakes he means  _ literally.  _ It was definitely just the low altitudes messing with their  _ blood pressure _ . There was no reason for the two of them to really get along. At least not in any meaningful way, just kind words to keep out of detention or keep inside someone’s place of employment. 

“I think seeing each other outside of school was exactly what you guys needed! Sky High is one big pseudo-eugenisist, nightmare sometimes.”

“Well, I'm going to pretend I know what pseudo-eugenics is.”

“I'm just saying at Sky High they try to turn  _ people _ into some hierarchy or pedigree of who’s heroic and who’s disposable when we're all equally valuable people. Hero. Villain. Sidekick. They're just  _ words,  _ but they impact everything. That doesn't work like that in the real world, we're just  _ kids.  _ I think that's something you guys learned yesterday.” 

“We didn't learn  _ anything.  _ I bet he's going to be tossing me into a wall again by lunch. He just didn't want to get fired.”

“Well, what about you? You wouldn't've gotten  _ fired  _ for standing up to him, what's that excuse?”

“I'm a model citizen and  _ ideal customer _ . It isn't in my nature to just start a fight with him over cold egg rolls or something.”

“Or,” Layla grinned. “You want to be his  _ friend. _ ”

Will pulled a face. “C’mon Lays, I just want a truce, I'm not about to hop into bed with a future villain. Unlike  _ some people  _ I know.”

Layla was taken aback and stopped walking. “Is this about the fact that I have his  _ phone number? _ ”

“I'm over it now, but honestly what do you think that information did for me?”

“I have a life of my own, Will. I only said anything because I wanted to help”

“A life of your own with him in it?”

“Yes!” She exclaimed. “And for the record, you don't seem very over it.” 

“Neither do you! What is he your new best friend or something?”

“You're being irrational and I don't  _ owe you _ an answer.”

“Yeah, I think you owe me an explanation, too.”

“I don't! We barely even talk to each other, Will, why do you care?”

Will didn’t respond. 

“See? You don't. Not really.”

“I do care. What if he's just trying to hurt you or something? What if I just stood by and let him do that?”

“But, he's not, Will.” Layla said. “If anything, you’re the one being hurtful.”

“C’mon, we’re gonna miss the bus.” Will started walking away, and Layla trailed behind. They didn't broach the conversation again despite sitting near each other the entire bus ride. 

The rest of the day wasn't much better. It was clear that the rest of their friends noticed something was up with them, and all of them except  _ Zach _ had definitively sided with Layla over it. Hero Support that day felt like a war zone, and it was one that Will wasn't going to win. 

The lecture portion of the period wasn't so bad. Mister Boy regaled them with stories of all the incredible things he watched Will’s parents do, no one paid attention, except for Ethan, but no one was expected to put any real effort forward yet. It was the midway mark when he wanted all of them to form groups and compare project notes that the situation went from docile to hostile. Everyone, again with the exception of Zach, turned accusingly towards Will until Layla started talking about her project to save his ass. 

“So, Penny and I agreed that her proactive fighting and my defensive combat style would be useful because we’re both representations of areas the other person is weak in. At least that was my conclusion. I doubt she agrees with that analysis. How is everyone else doing?”

“I wanna hear about Will’s project.” Magenta said, mostly deadpan, but with a clear  _ knowing _ in her tone.

“Why don't you tell us all about Speed first?” Will snapped back. 

“He's fast. I'm small. We don't really have any common ground besides listening to the Cure and going to the same piercer. Now you.” Magenta replied.

“Warren is everything I'm not, which I guess is good, like Layla said. It means we’re complimentary. I guess.” 

“Actually, I don't think you're using my quote correctly. Penny and I are actually willing to support each other and collaborate for the assignment despite our differences because we can see each other as individuals. In her case multiple individuals.” Layla said with a bit of bite behind it, but not nearly as much as she could have. 

“Well, if you found out Penny was rubbing her  _ individuality  _ all over the place and keeping big information from you—”

“My address book isn't big information.” Layla cut Will off, still too calm for comfort.

“So now you know where he  _ lives _ ?” Will exclaimed. 

“Can you guys please go back to the assignment?” Ethan chimed in before getting shushed by Zach. 

“I wanna see who wins, man.” 

“But, nobody is going to win” He replied only to be shushed again. 

The rest of the day was simply variations in that theme every time he and Layla got caught up in any form of conversation, until it was lunch and everyone had dispersed to do their assignments, leaving him with no choice, but to sit with his and figure out what was what. 

He all but slammed onto the bench across from Peace, his backpack crashing next to him only serving to dramatize the event.

Warren smirked. “What? Did you get a bad fortune—”

“Why does Layla have your phone number?”

Warren looked on with confusion. “Who?”

“ _ Greenpeace  _ ring any bells?” Will said, accusingly. 

Realization dawned upon him. “Your  _ friend _ ?”

“Yes!  _ Layla _ ” 

“She made me sign a petition to bring gluten free options to Sky High. I had to give a number.” Warren laughed at how worked up Will was over it. “Why did you think she had it?”

“I—” Will cut himself off, realizing it would be social suicide to let  _ Warren _ know he was at all jealous of him. “Nothing important. Just wanted to know if you guys were friends.”

“She's pretty cute” Warren could see the red growing on Will’s face. “But, she isn't really my type. Nice girl, though. Shocking she spends so much time with you.”

“What the heck is that supposed to mean?” Will said. 

“Even if she isn't cool, she marches to the beat of her own drum. You march to  _ God Bless America  _ then call it a day.”

“Shut up, Layla’s so cool, you wouldn't even  _ know.” _

Warren shrugged. “I guess I wouldn't. Was that the assignment Boy gave you guys or?”

“No. It wasn't.” Will angrily grabbed his notebook out of his bag and opened it to the spot with the report sheet. “What's your biggest weakness?”

“That's not what the sheet says.”

“That’s what I want to know.”

Warren scoffed. “Like I'm gonna tell you that.”

“What? Are you scared powerless Billy Stronghold is gonna use it to defeat you?” Layla’s words about poking a sleeping cub came into his mind and he quickly shoo’d them away. 

“No, I just don't trust you further than I can throw you.” Warren said, growing more irritated, but for once, failing to give Will the satisfaction of setting him off. 

“I bet you don't trust anybody. Don't you? That's your whole  _ villainous  _ deal, isn't it?”

“Pissing you off and disrupting your  _ perfect little life _ for a couple minutes does not make me the villain here.”

Now, Will was getting a little irritated himself. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  
“Sorry, I forgot the most  _ heroic _ thing in the whole damn world is antagonizing the kid with no  _ fucking _ father.” Warren reached over, set Will’s notes ablaze, and stormed out.


End file.
